We do it together.
The first thing I want to make perfectly clear is that hypnosis is NOT something that is done to you. Hypnosis IS NOT like surgery or getting a massage. Hypnosis is SOMETHING WE DO TOGETHER. It is a cooperative effort, and a skill that you will learn. All hypnosis is, in essence, self hypnosis, with the hypnotist acting as a well trained coach or guide to help you become congruent and create your changes and evolve into the person you want to become. It requires a commitment FROM YOU.

Hypnosis is not sleep.
Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness, similar to the twilight state just BEFORE sleep. People are often surprised that they DO HEAR everything said during a trance session, and that sometimes they find themselves in a heightened sense of awareness of their environment, other times they may zone out or not remember any of the actual session. It is NORMAL however to hear what is being said, otherwise, what would be the point in the hypnotist talking?

Hypnotherapy and Trance are two DIFFERENT THINGS.
Trance is a natural experience that EVERYONE enters into several time a day, if not, one tend to go a little nuts. Trance happens when you Zone out or Space out while driving, becoming absorbed within a movie, really get lost in a good book, and even when you find yourself enmeshed in an impossible problem, they are in essence in PROBLEM TRANCE. Runners experience dramatic altered trance states when running- Time distorts, they develop anesthesia for injuries and their bodies seem to function automatically. These are only as FEW types of trances that happen every day.
Hypnotherapy is a relationship, a skill and a process in which WE create a trance together, usually through relaxation and focusing attention, and then we DO SOEMTHING with it. So, Hypnosis is Trance with an OUTCOME- for this reason it is important we come to understand what is it that you WANT!
Hypnotherapy is a dynamic learning state in which we use the special learning part of you to help you create new options for behavior and unlock hidden potentials.

Your Two Minds
Hypnosis is based upon the theory that we have two aspects to our mind. The conscious mind, and what hypnotists call the Unconscious mind.. The conscious mind can be thought of as a jockey and the unconscious as the horse. The jockey can tell the horse where it wants to go, the conscious can TELL the unconscious what it wants to do or change, BUT if the horse doesn’t agree- if the Unconscious has a better reason for doing what it is doing- YOU DON’T GO! Likewise, once the horse agrees to go where the jockey wants, it would be silly for the jockey to tell the horse how to pick up it’s feet and get there… more than likely , the horse would fall over. In hypnosis we get the conscious mind out of the way, drifting in pleasant thoughts or through the trance, and then we communicate with the unconscious mind. We get the Unconscious mind going in the direction you want to go, and then GET OUT OF IT’S WAY!.
The unconscious mind has a duty and a right to protect you, that is what it has done since you were a child. It controls the automatic breathing functions and is purposeful, that is it seeks to achieve ONLY POSITIVE things for you, only POSTIVE outcomes or intentions. It is holographic and takes in ALL information at once, unlike the sequential hyper focused Conscious mind. The unconscious mind is capable of quick learning and dynamic changes of thinking, feeling and behavior.
The unconscious mind does not process negations- try NOT to think of a pink elephant! For this reason we always focus upon what you WANT, rather than what you don’t want when doing hypnosis.

YOU’RE IN CONTROL!
People wonder about a loss of control in hypnosis, but the protective unconscious mind is always monitoring and is there to protect you. In hypnosis you are aware and capable of coming out of trance any time you feel it is in your best interest to do so. You have MORE control in hypnosis because you are using both parts of your mind together rather than having them work in opposite direction.
People who have seen STAGE hypnosis may have very different ideas about hypnosis and control, but remember, the contract in STAGE hypnosis is different. People going on stage for a stage hypnosis demonstration are doing so KNOWING that they will do silly things. That is a VERY different set of expectations than within hypnosis as we will experience it.

Safety Filter
Your unconscious mind acts as a safety filter and will screen out anything that might be inappropriate or unacceptable for you. It is recording everything said as a form of unconscious notes and it is there to make sure you have a safe and SUCCESSFUL experience with hypnosis. Likewise, it will always guide you out of a trance state, just as one can not sleep for a thousand hours, one can not stay in a trance state forever.

PROBLEMS and SOLUTIONS
I tend to work in a goal oriented way, asking often what do you WANT in place of what you have, and what you need to make that happen- and it is YOUR SOLUTION, not mine. I am NOT there to act as a director or to diagnose, but rather to help you explore and discover. Again, this is something we do together and as such YOU will be expected to participate.

About your Session
The number of sessions can vary, depending upon what we are trying to accomplish, and we generally try to work no faster or slower than is ecological and acceptable for you, your life and your unconscious mind.
A Hypnotist is not a Doctor and can not “Heal” or “diagnose” anything.

WHAT TO EXPECT
After an appointment, expect changes to be generative and to take time to work their way into your life, and expect that they will respond directly to how well YOU follow your instructions after the trance. Immediate changes are the relaxation and things you fee as part of the trance induction. Generative changes are all those things that happen in the days that follow!
Post-hypnotic suggestions are those ideas offered to a person in hypnosis to "take with them" into their conscious life. The suggestions often deal with behaviors or beliefs the person wishes to change, such as to stop smoking, develop a better sense of self etc etc. How long the suggestions last is extremely variable and dependent on a number of things. Duration of a post-hypnotic suggestion is probably influenced most by how well the suggestion was accepted by the subconscious mind during hypnosis. Acceptance, in turn, is affected by a number of conditions/variables, such as resistance, deeper-seated issues affecting the situation being dealt with, sometimes depth of hypnotic trance and perhaps rapport between subject and hypnotist. It is probably safest to say that many issues of long-lasting duration, deep emotional impact and importance or around which there is a great deal of resistance to change, will need periodic, perhaps frequent (for a certain period of time) reinforcement of acceptance until the subconscious mind can truly integrate the new thought, feeling, emotion and/or behavior in a comfortable, natural way. As a side note, it is believed that suggestion becomes habit after 21 repetitions.